North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE SILAHARAS OF NORTH KONKAN

No. 23 : PLATES LVIII-LXI
PANHĀḶE PLATES OF VIKRAMĀDITYA : ŚAKA 1061

..THESE plates were found at Panhāḷe in the Dāpolī tālukā of the Ratnāgiri District. They have been edited by Dr. Mrs. Shobhana Gokhale in the Marathi Quarterly Ithāsa āṇī Samskṛiti, No. XXIX pp. 5 f. They have been edited here from excellent photographs kindly supplied by her.

..“The grant is engraved on three copper plates. The plates measure 29.50 cm. in length, 19 cm. in height and ½ cm. in thickness. The rims are slightly raised. On the top of each plate, at the centre, a square of 4 cm. is left blank for the holes. A ring of 9 cm. in diameter holds the plates together through the holes. The ends of the ring are soldered in a circular seal, about 5 cm. in diameter, which bears the representation of Garuḍa with the body of a man, sitting and facing full front, with hands closed on the breast. The total weight of the plates is 61 kg.”

.. The record consists of 94 lines, of which twenty-five are inscribed on the inner side of the first plate, twenty-six and twenty-two on the first and the second side respectively of the second plate, and the remaining twenty-one on the inner side of the third plate. The record is in an excellent state of preservation.

.. The characters are of the Nāgarī alphabet, resembling those of the other grants of the period. The following peculiarities may be noted. The initial a has almost assumed its modern form in Abhimāna, line 40; the initial i still retains its old form consisting of a curve below two dots (see iva, line 4); the left part of initial ē is not yet separated from its right (see ēka-line 31); the left part of kh is fully developed (see nikhila, line 3); the guttural nasal ṅ is still without its dot (see ṅkatō, line 63); th is in a transitional stage (see the forms of the letter in parārthaṁ, line 3, and bhrātā’tha, line 16; dh also appears in two forms, the old one in adhirōhati, line 20, and the later with a horn on the left as in dadhat, line 17; b is distinguished from v by a dot in its circle, see ‒mbudhiḥ, line 6; a final consonant is shown by a curve added to its vertical in bhavat, line 27, and by a slant in –uddharēt, line 52. The avagraha is used to denote the elision of a by sandhi as in raṁgiṇa’ -silatayā, line 7.

.. The language is Sanskrit. Most of the verses in the eulogistic portion are repeated from the earlier grant of Aparāditya I, but three more have been added here (viz. vv. 26 to 28) in the description of that king. Similarly, one more verse has been added to describe his son Vikramāditya (viz. v. 29). Again, six new verses occur in the formal portion of the grant in praise of gifts. The orthography does not call for anu remark except that v and b, though usually distinguished from each other, are sometimes seen confused : see jagad-ēkabīre, line25 and sva-saṁvadhyamāna-, line 46.

..The inscription refers itself to the reign of the Śilāhāra king Aparāditya (I). His genealogy is given here as in his Vaḍavalī grant, most of the verses in the eulogistic portion being taken from that grant. The new verses added here contain well deserved praise of the king, but give no additional historical information.

.. The inscription records a grant made by Aparāditya for the spiritual welfare of his son, the prince (Kumāra) Vikramāditya. He had asked the latter to execute it (dāpitaḥ). Accordingly, Vikramaditya, who bears the title Mahāmaṇḍalēśvara in line 91, actually executed the grant for the spiritual welfare of his parents and himself (line 73). The king Aparāditya had bathed in the western ocean at the Marut-kshētra and worshipped Śiva, called Marud- īśvara, before making the grant. The donee was the Brāhmaṇa Rudrabhaṭṭōpādhyāya, son of the Sōmayājī Kēśava Dvivēdibhaṭṭōpādhyāya, and grandson of Vidyādhara-